Chinese Wellness E-commerce Platform Ecmoho Files For $150m US IPO

Ecmoho, an online marketplace for non-medical wellness products, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $150 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in the US.

The planned IPO comes as China’s health and wellness industry, which encompasses both medical and non-medical services and products, grew at a total CAGR of 13 per cent from 2014 to 2018, according to a Frost & Sullivan study.

The filing is heavily redacted and the exact number of shares that the Shanghai-based company plans to offer and the price per share have not been disclosed. It has applied to list its American depositary shares on the NASDAQ under the symbol “MOHO”.

The e-commerce platform, which launched in 2011, has more than 150 exclusive distribution or online partnerships with brands such as Unilever and Beijing Tong Ren Tang Chinese Medicine Co., according to its website.

It also develops and manufactures supplements, as well as operates a postnatal care centre.

Ecmoho said it will use the proceeds from its filing to further expand its product and service offerings, repay certain short-term borrowings, fund potential acquisitions, and investments, among others.

The company, which claims to rank first in China’s non-medical health and wellness integrated solution in terms of revenue in 2018, said it sources around 5,000 SKUs of quality products from partners.

It has also developed an integrated family health management and service platform that offers health management plans, prepared by doctors and nutritionists, to its customers.

“Through over seven years of operation, we have built an ecosystem where Chinese consumers are provided with customized health and wellness solutions that include quality products and trustworthy content,” the company said.

Ecmoho’s net revenue grew by 102.6 per cent from $98.2 million in 2017 to $199 million in 2018, and by 111.9 per cent from $71.4 million in the first six months of 2018 to $151.3 million in the first six months of 2019.

The company’s IPO plan comes amid an escalating trade war between China and the US that has resulted in market uncertainties and a number of firms canceling or postponing their listing plans.

For instance, Chinese video-game live-streaming platform DouYu International Holdings Ltd earlier delayed its IPO amid market jitters in May. It finally filed to raise as much as $944 million in a US IPO in July.

Another Chinese firm, Samoyed Holdings Limited, a financial technology service company that focuses on China’s credit card repayment market, withdrew its planned IPO in the US due to “unfavorable market conditions” in August.